Connect Ventures

Working across media, consumer products and experiences, UTA Ventures both builds and invests in businesses. UTA Ventures works across the agency and with our clients, and partners with visionary founders to manifest their ideas, fuel their passion, and grow their companies via a wide variety of business models. Ventures is also the early stage investment arm of UTA, co-investing with leading venture firms into a dynamic portfolio of growing companies.

At Upfront, we like to come in at the earliest stages and stick with you as you grow. In today's world, that means we're your first check in at the seed (or even pre-seed) stage. And as you build and raise subsequent rounds, we can support that with our growth fund as well. Bottom line - we want to get to know you as early as possible and work together for a long time. With investment professionals in both LA and the Bay, we invest nationally and even globally for the right deal. Working With Upfront Some VCs have great networks. Some have great megaphones. Some VCs offer great counsel. We value all of those but most strongly believe in rolling up our sleeves and doing the hard work alongside you in your moments of need. When your company goes immediately up-and-to-the-right, everybody is your friend. When your company hits a bump in the road we’re there - even if that means telling you the tough messages others may not. The LA Advantage We invest nationally (sometimes internationally) but our entire team is in LA, giving our portfolio valuable leverage. How? Los Angeles is at the crossroads of Asia, Latin America, and North America, providing global perspective and a diverse talent pool to compete with any city in the world. As the country’s second largest city, LA graduates the most engineers of any US market, so we have the talent and resources to build world-changing companies. Of course, LA is also the world’s creative soul, home to the film, music, art and fashion industries as well as the influencers who set the trends and put companies on the map. Upfront Summit Every year, the Upfront Summit hosts more than 1,000 top investors, entrepreneurs, and thought-leaders for an invitation-only event in Los Angeles. With two days of compelling content and conversation, our Summit showcases the best of technology, innovation, and creativity – from established global brands to bleeding edge disruptors. We take on issues like race, gender, freedom of the press, and bullying, and we tackle the conflicts and contradictions of technology industry successes. And, of course, Upfront portfolio companies are center stage, helping you build your reputation and network. Diversity & Inclusion Upfront Ventures is dedicated to increasing equality, both on our own team and with the companies and founders that we fund. It’s the right thing to do - and diverse teams make better businesses.

Our vision is to level the playing field for generations of entrepreneurs to come. Our founders are game-changers who bring passion, resiliency, and authentic perspectives to everything they do - from shaping diverse, values-driven teams to satisfying consumers’ evolving demands. The most rewarding part of what we do is working hand in hand with them. We stand next to our founders by standing on the shoulders of our investors. Our valuesIntegrity: We operate with the highest levels of honesty and transparency, and we work hard to earn the trust of our founders. Humility: We don’t have big egos. Our founders are our biggest champions, and together we define our collective success. Inclusivity: We are champions of diversity and inclusivity. We believe that diverse teams are better positioned to serve the consumers of today and tomorrow, and we’re all in. Collaboration: We work hand in hand with our entrepreneurs to help build the next generation of legendary consumer companies. Humor: We believe that laughter and positivity are key ingredients to success, so we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We love what we do, and we have fun along the way. Consumer Obsession: We are relentless in our pursuit of the evolving consumer. From spotting trends to building products, our zeal for the consumer industry is insatiable.

Founded in 1995, the group has grown to become one of the most active and successful corporate venture funds with more than $1 billion invested to date.

Founded in 2009, Raine is a global merchant bank focused on fast-growing TMT growth sectors. The firm has over 160 people across offices in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mumbai. We leverage our deep sector expertise, network, and experience in our advisory business and in our principal investing business which currently has over $4 billion in AUM1. The firm’s principal investing platform includes early stage, growth equity, and public markets strategies which all benefit from the market insights and relationships developed in Raine’s advisory work. Raine Ventures is the firm’s early stage investment strategy, focused on seed through Series B investments in transformational brands and platforms throughout the TMT ecosystem. The dedicated venture team of five full time professionals is led by Gordon Rubenstein, a multi-time entrepreneur with significant operational experience. Raine Ventures, as one pillar of the broader Raine platform, is synergistically integrated with professionals across advisory, growth equity and public markets investing, driving advantages for RVP at every step of the investment process. Raine’s venture portfolios are generally comprised of Raine-proprietary investments including, among others: the Premier Lacrosse League, a new outdoor, men’s professional lacrosse league that held its successful inaugural season in 2019; Material Bank, a first-of-its-kind vertically integrated marketplace for the design industry; and Talkshoplive, a social shopping business offering embeddable and shoppable live and on-demand video capabilities.

Channel 4 Ventures (“C4V”) is a highly innovative corporate venture activity for Channel 4, which invests Channel 4’s airtime in return for minority stakes in early-stage companies (“media-for-equity”). Channel 4 Ventures provides an exciting opportunity for high-growth startups to access mass market audiences via premium marketing inventory (i.e. the spots between Bake-Off, Made in Chelsea, and Gogglebox) without dipping into cash reserves earmarked for competing development priorities. We are the leading media-for-equity fund in the UK and one of the few consumer-focused venture funds in the market with a truly unique proposition, clear value-add, and ambitious team. Since inception in 2015, C4V has completed 50+ investments in consumer growth companies, including Pinterest, Airtasker, Eve Sleep, Swyft, what3words, Strike, Cannaray, Crowdcube, Raylo, and Drover. C4V has invested alongside many prominent VC investors across the consumer ecosystem, such as Accel, Felix, Octopus, Balderton, Draper, Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity Investments, Intel, Whole Foods & BP Ventures. Some of our successful exits via IPO include Eve Sleep, Pinterest, and Readly.